


Life In Limbo

by reader1718



Category: X-Men - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-07
Updated: 2015-01-07
Packaged: 2018-03-05 14:28:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3123542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reader1718/pseuds/reader1718





	Life In Limbo

Life In Limbo: Tony’s Story

Tony was extremely excited. He was going on vacation to the Bahamas with some friends of his for about a week. Riff and the others weren’t completely okay with being away from their territory for that long, but they knew that they needed a break every now and then. So they had agreed to this little vacation for his benefit. They caught an early flight out that day and flew for several hours until they finally arrived in the Bahamas. They unpacked their beach gear and had time for a little fun on the beach before it was time to turn in for the night. Tony roomed with Riff and the others roomed together, two to a room. It was awhile before they went to sleep because they were all so wound up from the day’s events.

That night, Tony heard a voice in his head and a strange circle of light on the floor of his room, which drew him, and as he got closer, it seemed to move, getting farther from him as he went towards it. He followed it out the door and down the path as if in a trance, never noticing that he was getting farther from his room with each step. Soon Riff woke up from a really weird dream and despite being sleepy, noticed that Tony was missing. He then saw Tony headed away from the resort, about to disappear behind the trees, so he woke the other guys and the rest of the kids in the group, and they went after him. They did manage to catch up to Tony, just as he reached out to touch the light circle, which was right on the ground in front of him. Riff and the others grabbed his arm, causing them all to fall forward into the gleaming circle.

The kids realized rather quickly that they were no longer on Earth, as the place they now were looked like something out of their nightmares, or like the Bible’s depiction of Hell. Riff had never been much for religion before, but this place made him want to go to the nearest church and pray for his soul’s safety. Even rough and tough Action wanted to hide and Ice was considering crying for his mother. Just then they noticed a figure that resembled the stereotypical image of the Devil coming toward them. The demonic figure told them that he wouldn’t hurt them. He merely wanted to see Tony, so Tony started forward towards him. However at that moment, another figure whose face was obscured, stepped out of the shadows and told Tony not to trust the scary-looking man, that he would send them back to Earth immediately. The figure surrounded them all with a glowing circle of light and began chanting something. Unfortunately, no one saw the scary-looking man bypass their protector and grab Tony’s arm! His friends immediately grabbed his other arm, trying to get him back.

“No! Belasco has Tony!” shouted the mysterious person. At that moment, other figures dressed like the first began casting spells of their own. As they fought Belasco, their faces were revealed, and Tony was startled to realize he was staring at older versions of the friends he’d gone on vacation with. All the ones in evidence had sorcerer’s powers and were trying to rescue him, it seemed. One of them was his friend Jennifer, who had been in the room down the hall from him. She soon came over to where he was, while her companions went to protect his friends, who demanded an explanation for why they were there. One of them explained that they were trying to stop the horrors that befell their counterparts from happening again. Tony realized that these weren’t the friends he remembered, but alternate versions from another timeline or another universe. At that moment, Tony’s friends lost their grip on him and wound up being sent back to Earth without him.

Belasco laid Tony down on a stone slab, and despite Jennifer’s attempt to help him, Belasco drew part of Tony’s soul from his body. Tony felt light and free, enjoying the feeling of floating, completely unaware of what was happening. Belasco aged the simulacrum of Tony into the semblance of a teenager and then turned it into a bloodstone, which he emplaced into the Beatrice Medallion. Belasco proclaimed that he would use the bloodstones to open the gateway for his masters, the Elder Gods, to inhabit the Earth, as he had once tried and failed to do with Illyana Rasputin. Just then another masked figure entered the room, this one a boy, and threatened Belasco with a sword. It was Riff, but not the Riff Tony had known. This Riff now went by Richard, his real name, and was a far older and more serious warrior than the gang leader he had been on Earth. Unfortunately, Richard couldn’t touch him, as Belasco would disappear before the sword could make contact. Jen asked why he bothered, as Belasco was a sorcerer. Richard said that steel was the only way he could fight him.

Jennifer transported Rick and Tony to her sanctum so that he would be able to rest for awhile. Rick admitted that part of him now hated the boy, since it was his fault they had become what they were. Jen asked him if he truly believed that and Rick had no answer for her. Tony was listening in, but Jen knew he was, as her sorceress’s instincts made her aware of everything around her. The two of them debated what to do about the boy. Rick wanted to kill him because he seemed so dangerous already, but Jen had a different solution. She tried to enter Tony’s mind and break Belasco’s link with him, but instead found him so transformed that she hardly recognized the boy. The persona of him that she encountered was so warped and twisted that he looked like Belasco himself! Jen was horrified and her astral self barely escaped intact.

Feeling unclean, Jen went for a swim in a nearby pool, not caring that Riff saw her with no clothes on, as they had all evolved past the point of caring about things like that. Jen suggested she make Tony her apprentice and teach him magic to combat the evil part of his soul. Rick was against it, believing that they would be playing right into Belasco’s hands by teaching him that, and that Jen would be only too happy to take his place if he disappeared tomorrow. Jen was horrified at the suggestion, and an argument started over whether there was truly any difference remaining between her and Belasco. Finally Rick left, tired of the argument.

After that, Jennifer showed Tony around her sanctum, and they sat down under a big oak tree behind the building. Jen separated their astral selves from their real bodies. Jen showed him all the things in the natural area. They discovered an infection in one of the plants, and Jen healed it easily, although the effects left her drained. Tony was excited and wanted to learn how to do that himself, to change things and create new ones. “No! You’re never to do that, never to even think it! If you do that, you will destroy us all!” Jen cried, grabbing his arm. Tony cried out in pain and Jen apologized, but Tony drew away from her, upset. Jen explained that changing things to satisfy a whim wasn’t the way to do things. She told him to look inside himself, and Tony finally saw the evil cancer that was growing within him, manifesting as a black crystal. The same crystal was inside Jen, but it was bigger. Tony came back to himself and discovered he had grown. Jen explained that a year had passed while they’d been seated at the base of the tree. Tony realized that he wouldn’t be a child much longer at this rate and asked if Jen had stopped the lesson because of the crystal he’d seen. Jen explained about the price she’d paid to gain the arcane magic she’d learned. Tony wondered if the same thing would happen to him, but Jen promised to do her best to prevent it. They then left to see what they could scrape up for dinner, not noticing that the plant Jen had healed withered and died.

That night, Rick snuck into the sanctum, knocked Jen unconscious so she wouldn’t disturb them, and then went to Tony’s room. He told Tony he could take him home, but the way would be fraught with peril. Tony asked what Jen thought of this plan, and Rick told him she wanted to keep him by her side as her apprentice–to serve her as she once did Belasco, possibly for the rest of his life. “Is there evil in her?” Tony asked. “In us all, and the longer you remain, the stronger it grows,” Rick responded. Tony decided he didn’t want to stay and asked Rick to take him home. Little did either of them suspect, however, that this was exactly what Belasco wanted.

Along the way they encountered many of Limbo’s demons, and Rick managed to beat them all, however, during this latest battle, Tony fell into one of the light circles–the same as the one that brought him to Limbo, and was instantly transported somewhere far away from Rick. Tony saw another circle and steered clear of it. Tony mentally scolded himself for feeling such cowardice and wondered what his friends would think of him, then discovered something on the wall behind him. Someone struck a match and Tony gasped at the grisly sight in front of him. There he saw Action and some of his other friends strung up like ghastly trophies on the wall. One of Belasco’s principal demons, S’ym, mocked him, stating that the poor corpses on the wall had to be taught a lesson for objecting to Belasco’s plans for Tony. Tony saw a nearby light circle and bolted for it, anxious to get away from S’ym, but when he was a mere step from his goal, S’ym grabbed him and prevented him from reaching it.

Before he could do any harm to Tony, however, Rick found them and stabbed S’ym’s tail with his sword. Rick told S’ym to watch his step or he might end up as his dinner. They then left S’ym to his own devices and passed through into Limbo’s outer layers. Tony was surprised at the overall desolateness of Limbo, but Rick explained that Belasco had done this over the centuries. Then, Rick saw a tiger demon and went after it. He managed to subdue and kill it, making a fine dinner for them both and using the skins to make better clothes for Tony, clothes more suited to running, since they would be doing a lot of that in the coming days. To be honest, Tony was becoming as afraid of Rick as he was of Belasco. The next day, Tony was hungry and asked Rick what was for breakfast, and Rick answered that he would be a lot hungrier before they finally ate, and a long way from their current location. Along the way, Rick forced Tony to fight him with his sword, attempting to teach him to strike quickly and without mercy. Tony was a less than apt pupil at first and asked Rick why he was doing this, Rick told him that as the evil wilderness shaped and tempered him, so it would do to Tony. Tony wanted to give up several times and once even wanted to stop and rest, but Rick wouldn’t let him. He even threatened to leave him there alone with a horrible demon, which of course gave Tony the courage to run again. Finally, they ate, but Rick had been right when he said they would be far from their origin point.

One day, Jen contacted them and tried to get Rick to return to her sanctum, but Rick refused, stating that he felt Jen was following Belasco’s path. Finally Jen realized she could only leave them to their fates and bid them goodbye for the last time. Their journey continued the next several days. All the while, Rick continued to train him in combat, sometimes having him use the sword, sometimes giving him his knife instead. Tony even began winning. Finally they reached Belasco’s citadel, and by that point Tony was over thirteen years old. Once there, they encountered one of Rick and Tony’s oldest friends, Ice, now reduced to a hired gladiator and bodyguard, twisted and warped by Limbo’s unholy wilderness. Rick was forced to slay him before they could move on, much as it hurt to do so. Rick then took Tony to Belasco’s altar where the barriers between dimensions were thinnest. They thought they would make it at first. They even saw Tony’s former friends waiting for them. However, just as Tony gave Riff his hand, it turned out to be Belasco instead. He’d been posing as Riff with a horde of demons posing as the others, just to lure Tony to him. Belasco, who’d grown tired of Rick’s impertinence and bravado, turned him into a panther-like creature, an echo of the man he’d once been, and made him his pet. Tony had an opportunity to kill Belasco, but the evil influence in his soul made him cut himself and create another bloodstone instead.

Jen realized that she would have to destroy Rick and Tony both to save them from being corrupted further. Meanwhile, Tony was tutored by Belasco in the dark arts, the evil part of his soul delighting in it. Once he even used magic against Rick, throwing him magically against the wall. Riff had come to try talking to his old friend, but after that, he never came again. Tony tried casting a circle as he’d been taught by Jen, trying to learn to create life, rather than destroy it. Alas, all his attempts were as flawed as he was. Later, Jen showed up in astral form and told him she had a plan to end Belasco’s control of Tony, that he merely had to trust her to carry it out. Tony, however, had another plan. He would use the books in Belasco’s library to find spells that would enable him to destroy Belasco. Jen forbade him to try that, but Tony kept arguing with her, protesting that if he didn’t act now it would be too late. Jen asked if he was eager to share Rick’s fate, and Tony protested that he would anyway, even if he did nothing. Jen informed him he had more than he realized, so Tony pleaded for her help. Jen then left, promising she would in her own time, in her own way.

Tony sulked after she left, believing he’d been abandoned. However, he saw a light circle on the wall nearby, and after wishing for it to come closer, realized he could control it!! Soon it seemed to vanish, but then Tony’s bed lit up with the circle’s light, and Tony was transported out of his room to somewhere in the Limbo catacombs. While there, he had a few encounters with strangers who somehow seemed to know him, even though he didn’t know them. Finally Tony reached the library, but before he could look at any books, Jen appeared in astral form again, and sent him hurtling away into a waiting light circle. When Tony recovered from the shock of the teleportation, he realized he was in the past. He witnessed Jen’s first encounter with Belasco and saw her become tainted for the first time. She grew horns and became the very image of Belasco, with the exception of being female. Tony finally understood Jen’s struggle and what she was trying to save him from.

Just then, a light circle appeared and pulled Tony from the past, back to the present–and into S’ym’s waiting hands. Tony dazzled him with a flare spell, and used his newfound talent to summon a light circle and send S’ym hurtling away, not caring where or when he sent him. Tony soon reached the main room of the Citadel, and witnessed the battle royale between Jen and Belasco. Tony tried to summon a light circle to spirit them both away, but his thoughts and heart were racing too fast. He missed with his first attempt, but before he could try again, the newly feral Rick struck Jen a mortal blow. Tony raced to Jen’s side, but was too late to help her. He had to fend off Rick, knowing that probably his cause was hopeless. Finally, Tony broke Rick’s neck, hating himself for doing it, but knowing he’d had no choice.

He then returned to Jen’s side, ultimately being forced to kill her to stop Belasco from getting her soul. Tony cried as he did so, regretting losing such a dear friend. He summoned a stepping disk and spirited himself and Jen’s body away so he could bury her in the place she loved most. After Jen’s burial, Tony stopped to contemplate where he would go from here. However, the calm oasis Jen had created soon became a hellish nightmare as Belasco’s enchantments brought the corpses of his friends to life. Tony tried to teleport away and found himself standing in front of his house. He couldn’t believe it, and raced toward the house, desparate to see his parents again. However, they didn’t recognize him, as he was now so much older than when he left. Tony realized now that he could never truly go home again.

Soon more ghoulish apparitions appeared and brought Tony back to Belasco. Yet another bloodstone was created from another piece of his soul, and Tony was left to fend for himself in the desolate unholy wastes of Limbo. Tony tried again to create life, and failed. Finally he realized the reason he couldn’t was because he wanted revenge instead, so Tony used another piece of his soul to create a sword he could use against Belasco. He teleported into the Citadel and went after Belasco. He destroyed all Belasco’s dark magic tomes, then attacked the demon mage himself. He attacked without pause and without mercy, not noticing that he was becoming more demonic himself, until he noticed that he had a tail that he was using to hold Belasco’s sword, while his own hands held his sword. He spared Belasco’s life, realizing that he would become just like him if he did not. Tony knew he wasn’t like Belasco. He still had some humanity left in him, and this act of mercy would prove it. Tony knew he couldn’t stay in Limbo, so he returned to the spot where he originally entered Limbo, finding his friends ready to pull him out. They did, but were shocked at how much he’d aged, since to them it had been mere seconds since he’d vanished, while to him seven years had gone by.

Tony knew he could never hang out with them the way he once had. His childhood was gone, and with it, all chance of a real friendship with them. He also knew he had no real place with his parents anymore, so he decided to join the Xavier Institute and become part of Charles’s newest team of mutant heroes, adopting the codename Mage. He went on many adventures with them, at first reluctant to share his story, for fear they would reject him for being a demonically tainted sorcerer. However, he soon found the courage to tell them about his life in Limbo and explain that while he was part demonic, he wasn’t evil. He would have to live with his dark persona all his life, but now he had a good cause to fight for instead of an evil one.

The End

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